Andrew Leigh

Did you know ballot order, a familiar first name, and genetic fortune can have a significant impact on who is elected? A little luck in politics can go a long way.

Last week I launched my new book, The Luck of Politics in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra. You can podcast the Sydney launch (in conversation with David Marr) and the ANU launch (just my speech) at Podbean and on iTunes. 

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ONLINE INTERVIEW

FAIRFAX BREAKING POLITICS

MONDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Syrian refugee crisis; Two years of the Abbott Government.

CHRIS HAMMER: Andrew Laming, Andrew Leigh, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning.

HAMMER: Andrew Laming to you first. Should Australia be taking more refugees from Syria in total?

ANDREW LAMING, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR BOWMAN: We will be taking more in total as a portion of all refugees, that number increases from 13,000 to 18,750 in 2018-2019.

HAMMER: That was always going to happen though so special circumstances, should Australia be taking more people?

LAMING: This is a major humanitarian catastrophe and I think Australia, by going to Europe and saying we're part of the solution, by offering to take more places that take months to process, we’re actually saying to Europe that by having intact borders we can do more. Australia is showing that we've sorted out our own borders and we can now be part of solution to the European exceptional circumstance like this.

HAMMER: So what are you suggesting?

LAMING: I think we will be taking more and I think we'll be taking more than the current 30 per cent ratio. I think that this is a holding position until a further figure is arrived at in a few weeks.

HAMMER: Andrew Leigh, how many Syrian refugees should Australia take?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: I think we should take more, Chris. But not because we're taking less refugees from other countries. It's not as though the situation in South Sudan or Iraq and Afghanistan has gotten significantly better over the past years. Yet one of the first acts upon coming to office was the Abbott Government cutting the refugee intake from 20,000 to 13,750. It's not good enough to send people up into Geneva with a plan of shuffling around refugees from different countries. We ought to be going over there saying Australia will take more refugees. Labor would like to see us take 27,000 refugees and the Government should immediately reverse its cut to the refugee intake.

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TV INTERVIEW

SKY AM AGENDA

MONDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: Syrian refugee crisis; China Free Trade Agreement.

KIERAN GILBERT: Andrew Leigh, a lot to get across. First off on the issue of refugees and the Syrian intake particularly: what's your view on this? Should there be an extra contingent that the government takes in and what sort of number are you talking about?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Well Kieran, unless you think that the needs of other developed countries have gone down, the only way in which you can provide more assistance, be more generous, is to raise the refugee intake. I've consistently argued that it was a mean-spirited decision of the Government to cut the refugee intake from 20,000 to 13,750 when they first won office. Labor would like to see that go back over time to 27,000; doubling today's intake.

TWO YEARS SINCE TONY ABBOTT'S 'LOWER TAXES' FALSEHOOD

Two years ago, Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey’s Liberals promised Australians that “taxes will always be lower under a Coalition government.”

– Real Solutions campaign brochure   

It turns out that even when he writes things down, you can’t trust Tony Abbott. The Coalition are now running one of the highest-taxing governments in Australian history.

In Joe Hockey’s second bungled budget, Australia’s tax-to-GDP ratio rose to 22.3 per cent. The tax take is set to rise even further to 23.4 per cent over the forward estimates.

Don't cook the goose on tax reform, Huffington Post, 4 September

What does an efficient tax system look like? Economists will tell you that its one where we minimise the unwanted distortions on behaviour. Most taxes change what people do: if you tax chocolate bars at a higher rate than apples, people will be more likely to pack a Granny Smith with their lunch.

But some taxes lead to far bigger distortions than others. Insurance taxes discourage people buying insurance, which means they’re more vulnerable to risk. Stamp duty discourages mobility, which means we have too many empty-nesters rattling around in homes that would be better used by growing families. The result of inefficient taxes like these is underinsurance and higher house prices.

Efficiency isn’t the only thing that matters, but it has to be part of the debate. As 17^th century French politician Jean-Baptiste Colbert put it, ‘The art of taxation consists in plucking the goose so as to get the most feathers with the least hissing’.

BELCONNEN COMMUNITY WELL ACQUAINTED WITH ABBOTT GOVERNMENT & FARCE

Last Friday, all of Australia looked on with open-mouthed astonishment at the Abbott Government’s ‘border farce’ debacle.

For Canberrans however, another farce has been unfolding for almost a year now as the Government has continually put off making a decision about where to base the merged Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

Since September last year, the Government has been considering ripping the department out of the Belconnen Town Centre, where Immigration has been based for more than 40 years. 

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RADIO INTERVIEW

RADIO NATIONAL DRIVE

THURSDAY, 3 SEPTEMBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: China Free Trade Agreement; State of the Australian economy; Canning by-election.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Let's kick off with the China Free Trade Agreement, which the Coalition has been defending today. The Opposition has reservations about arrangements for foreign labour under the deal, but Trade Minister Andrew Robb says those aspects of the negotiations are the same as when Labor initiated negotiations 10 years ago. Dr Andrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer – nice to have you back on RN Drive.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Thanks Patricia, lovely to be with you.

KARVELAS: The Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten, is pushing for changes to be made to the FTA. But as the Trade Minister told us yesterday, making those changes is likely to lead to the Chinese walking away. That's the risk, they say. Is the Opposition playing politics as the risk of losing a deal vital to the national economy?

LEIGH: Patricia, we simply want the Government to sit down with us and work through the real concern that many Australians have about the fact that this is the first trade deal that removes labour market testing for Chinese migrants in the trade and technical occupations. That's a threat to what free trade agreements ought to do, which is to create more jobs and better paying ones. I'm a free trader not from blind ideology, but because I know the evidence that bringing down trade barriers has been good for creating Australian jobs. It's the migration portion of this agreement that Labor has concerns about.

The Abbott Government's super blind spot, Business Spectator, 3 September

Joint op-ed with Bernie Ripoll MP

People sometimes ask why those of us in the Labor Party are such strong advocates for evidence-based policymaking. The reason, of course, is that without drawing on evidence, personal prejudices can quickly come to guide public policy, paving the way for blind spots to cloud the view of what needs to be done.

The Abbott Government is letting just such a blind spot block out good evidence when it comes to changing the governance arrangements for Australia’s industry super funds.

The Government is proposing to end more than two decades of successful joint governance by employer and employee-nominated fund directors and instead force boards to take on both an independent chair and one-third independent directors.

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RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC NEWSRADIO

THURSDAY, 3 SEPTEMBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: State of the Australian economy; Superannuation; Government backflip on Bank Deposits Levy

STUART BOCKING: Labor's Shadow Assistant Treasurer is Andrew Leigh and he's on the line now, good morning.

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Good morning Stuart.

BOCKING: What's your take from the figures yesterday, those GDP figures, what we've seen with the value of the dollar and of course, the market volatility over the past week or so?

LEIGH: Stuart, we're in an economic transition with the investment phase of the mining boom phasing down and subtracting from growth. What we need is a Government with a clear plan for what comes after the mining boom. For mine, that would involve heavy investment in technology and engineering jobs, making sure that we're creating jobs in renewables rather than attacking the solar and wind sectors, and making sure that we've got significant investment in long-term growth. What I worry is that Joe Hockey is much keener on finding excuses than finding solutions. Last time the growth figures came out he was all focused on the quarterly numbers because that's what made him look good in the international comparison. Now he wants us to look at the annual numbers because that's what makes him look good.

BOCKING: In fairness, governments are always at that – you'd be doing exactly the same thing and have in the past when you were in government. You're always going to look for the numbers that do seem most appealing. I think one of the difficulties many people have is accepting that countries like the US, countries like Greece have a better rate of economic growth than we do.

LEIGH: That's absolutely a concern for me, Stuart. And you can take simple numbers that we know should be going in one direction and see that they're going the other. The unemployment rate should be going down, instead it is now at a 13-year high. Consumer sentiment should be getting better, but instead it's 11 per cent down from where it was at the election. Growth ought to be getting better but instead growth is waning. The deficit ought to be falling – Mr Abbott said that would be his number one test of economic credibility – but the deficit has doubled in just the last 12 months. So the numbers that should be going up are going down, and the numbers that should be going down are going up.

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RADIO INTERVIEW

ABC NEWSRADIO

THURSDAY, 3 SEPTEMBER 2015

SUBJECT/S: State of the Australian economy.

MARIUS BENSON: Andrew Leigh, the Government and some substantial economists this morning are saying things aren't that good but at least the economy isn't heading into recession. Do you agree we're not heading into recession?

ANDREW LEIGH, SHADOW ASSISTANT TREASURER: Marius, I think responsible alternative governments are very, very careful in their language around that sort of thing. Yesterday's numbers are a significant cause for concern. We were told that the election of an Abbott Government would be like a shot of adrenalin to the Australian economy but instead we've got figures which are only positive because of a significant increase in government spending.

BENSON: But the Government says at least we're growing; look at Canada, look at Brazil, look at those other resources-reliant economies that are in recession.

LEIGH: They're casting around for comparisons. Last quarter Joe Hockey was doing his comparisons based on quarterly numbers; now he's doing them on annual numbers. The fact is, Marius, we've got unemployment at a 13-year high, consumer sentiment 11 per cent below where it was at the election, we've had the budget deficit doubled just in the last 12 months and we've got taxes and spending rising, contrary to what the Abbott Liberals told us before the election, that they would be a lower taxing government.